Liquid Cathode Reduces Platinum Use for Cheaper Fuel Cell

A UK-based company called ACAL Energy promises to reduce the use of platinum in a fuel cell by 80 percent, and still maintain the same power capacity - equivalent to a 40 percent reduction in costs, ACAL claims.

Platinum's costs make it a prohibitive factor in the more widespread use of fuel cells. There are other more affordable alternatives in existence, but compared to platinum, they degrade quickly and produce low current densities. But a UK-based company called ACAL Energy promises to reduce the use of platinum in a fuel cell by 80 percent, and still maintain the same power capacity - equivalent to a 40 percent reduction in costs, ACAL claims.

Whereas in a traditional fuel cell, the platinum contents would lie embedded within porous carbon electrodes, ACAL's design places the platinum on a liquid cathode using molybdenum and vanadium as catalysts. Using this set-up, ACAL's fuel cell reaches a power density of 1.5 watts per square centimeter. This leads ACAL's co-founder and chief technology officer, Andrew Creeth, to proclaim: "We believe that we're getting close to a marketable product." In fact, ACAL is slated to introduce its one-kilowatt system to a limited market next year, with a wider release to follow by 2011. Instead of focusing on fuel cell system for cars, the company will start targeting the diesel generator market with systems ranging from one to 10 kilowatts in capacity.

Reducing costs of platinum aside, the company claims the way the system works further reduces costs associated with it. For example, lab tests prove the system can run for 1,500 hours straight, and since there is liquid involved, there isn't any need for a cooling system fuel-cell stacks might require.